This is gonna be a weird question! Do you have any tips or recommendations on how to learn drawing sonic characters similar-ish to the series?
Hello! Hi! I’d like to preface this by saying I have no idea how to teach anything ever and what I’m about to say is based on my own observations! Mobians come in a variety of shapes and sizes! Not all of them carry the same proportions as Sonic – However, despite there being a wide range of animals used in the franchise, they all share specific design choices that allow them to convincingly inhabit the same world. I will do my best to list these choices in a way that sorta breaks down how to design a Mobian character!
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RECURRING SHAPES: All Mobians carry two or three recurring shapes within their design! Let’s look at Sonic as an example:
Sonic is made up of circles (primary shape), triangles (secondary shape), and a secret third thing (squares). While recurring shapes is basic bitch character design rules, primary and secondary shapes with Sonic characters tend to occupy equal ground! You can look at just about any Mobian character and break them down into almost equal amounts of two different shapes, with a tertiary shape occasionally butting into that tango. MOST Mobians have bodies that consist of a circle on top of a square, or vice-versa. Smaller characters like Charmy Bee or Chip are the exception to this rule. Their torsos are made up of one shape entirely (Charmy's is a circle and Chip's is a triangle). Big is a one-shape-body boy as well, of the circle variety.
PROPORTIONS: Hey remember that picture of Sonic I literally just scribbled over and then showed you three times? Let's look at it a fourth time, and this time without the scribbles.
So his head is huge, right? Cartoon characters like him tend to have those! and big hands and big feet and yeah you've seen all of this before. But what about Mobians, specifically? Is there a way to mathematically break down the proportions of those little critters? Well sure, but I'm total dogshit with math, so instead I eyeball the proportions of large characters and small characters to get a sorta basis for what looks right! For example, Sonic's torso is roughly half the size of his head, and his hands and shoes are all each the size of his torso! Meanwhile, if you put a second Sonic head behind the base of the first one, you'll notice that the quills are about the same width! The opposite can be said for large characters like Vector or Big:
Here, it's kinda the opposite. The torso is the biggest thing, whereas the head dictates the size of most other parts of the body! Sure, you may get instances like Big's ears, which are the length of his torso's height, but ultimately, the rule of Sonic character design, as far as I've observed, seems to be to have one part of the body determine the size of all other parts. Nothing gets its own size, everything can be measured with something else (smaller details don't count).
WHAT WHAT'S UP WITH THOSE EYES: Famously, Sonic's got some kinda cyclops eye thing going on. Not every Mobian is like this, however! In fact, most aren't! The type of animal that seems to consistently have a mono-eye in their design are hedgehogs. The exceptions to this rule are Charmy and Vector, as far as I'm aware (I'm not aware of many things). So with that said, there are three eye types Mobians tend to have:
Respectively: The Mono-Eye, The "I'm Not Mad At You I Swear," and The Standard Set. All of these can be pushed and pulled to fit the character's overall design better. For example, we can look at Shadow and Rouge! Shadow has the Mono-Eye and Rouge has The Standard Set -- But that doesn't mean their eyes look exactly the same as Sonic's and Tails's!
Shadow's eyes are a soft triangle shape more than a circle like Sonic's are, to match the general star shape of his design. Rouge's eyes look as if Tails's eyes were rotated slightly outward to give them more of a slant -- This fits into her heart secondary shape. The Mono-Eye and Standard Set are the easiest eyes to convey emotion with. The "I'm Not Mad At You I Swear," which can also be found on Jet
Is defined best by a furrowed brow, the bottom of which will always touch the top of the muzzle/beak. Emoting characters who have this is tricky, but can be done by moving the center of the brow on each side of the face (NOT the middle of the head). Some examples:
Birds and echidnas tend to have this one! There is also no actual hard and fast rule for it! I've seen the "I'm Not Mad At You I Swear drawn as a Mono-Eye AND as a Standard Set by different artists just doing their best to emote a fella.
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When figuring out designs for Mobians, please also consider looking at what Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog (Issue 160+) and IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comic artists have created for inspiration! There are a TON of background Mobians in both of these books, all different species with different shapes and sizes!
This is all I can think of for now when it comes to basic principles in Mobian design! If you (or anyone) has anything specific in mind question-wise, go ahead and reblog or leave a comment letting me know what's on your mind! Otherwise, I'm signing off on this post! Good luck!!
